Conned out of almost £5,000 by telephone tricksters, a grandmother has today told how scammers left her feeling ‘stupid’.

Joanne Harrison lost £4,700 from her savings when she fell victim to a computer hacking fraud.

The 51-year-old was taking care of her grandchildren at home in Prudhoe, Northumberland, when she answered a call from a man claiming to be from her broadband provider Talk Talk.

The trickster persuaded her to download items onto her computer that enabled hackers to gain access to her bank account, and she was eventually conned into transferring thousands of pounds into another account.

Talk Talk has admitted that some of its customers have been targeted by phone scammers after criminals gained access to their details illegally.

And today, as Joanne counts the cost of her very expensive phonecall, she is sharing her experience in a bid to warn others that anyone can become a fraud victim.

Joanne said: “I just want people to be aware.

“When I look back I think; ‘how stupid was I?’ But it just shows it can happen to anyone and it’s just a horrible, horrible feeling.”

Joanne had no reason to suspect any foul play when she answered the phone on the afternoon of Friday, July 3.

The caller told her she had a virus on her computer, but if she logged on they would be able to remove it by talking her through some steps on the phone.

Joanne, who works for the NHS, followed the man’s instructions, clicking on various links that appeared on her screen.

The caller then informed her she would need a new router, and that she would get £200 back from Talk Talk to pay for it, and told her to log-on to her bank account.

The man on the phone then said they had made a mistake and accidently transferred £5,000 into Joanne’s account, and ordered that she pay it back by transferring £4,800 into another account.

“I was totally stressed at the time because I was looking after my grand-kids,” Joanne explained.

“He was getting quite nasty so I just said I would.

“But it was all really professional. He didn’t seem, dodgy at all. I wasn’t suspicious that he didn’t work for Talk Talk.”

Joanne Harrison of Prudhoe

It was not until several days later that Joanne logged onto her bank account and discovered that hackers had transferred money from her savings account to her current account meaning she had paid the mystery caller back with her own money.

The Fraud Team at Joanne’s bank is now investigating the matter. But she has been told that because she made the transfer herself it is possible she will not get the money back.

And Joanne is now urging others to learn from her ordeal.

“I would just say to anyone who gets any unexpected calls to put the phone down and ring the firm back,” she said.

“I will never ever take a call off anyone now unless I have called them back myself. It has knocked my confidence. It makes you doubt your own judgement.”

A TalkTalk spokesperson said: “This is a sophisticated banking fraud and we are sorry that Ms Harrison has been affected.

“We take our customers’ security seriously, although we know a small number of customers are being targeted by phone scammers, using a limited amount of customer data that was accessed illegally. “No sensitive information, like bank account or credit card details, was accessed.

“We have written to all our customers twice to warn them about phone scams, and we are working with other telecommunications companies and banks to raise awareness.”